In the wake of the public's wide-spread acceptance and adoption of computers, many households and businesses are implementing local networks for the purpose of connecting various electrical devices. As an example, users can employ a server or host device (such as a media compatible personal computer (PC)) as an entertainment server to stream media content over a network to client devices such as a desktop PCs, notebooks, portable computers, cellular telephones, other wireless communications devices, personal digital assistants (PDA), gaming consoles, IP set-top boxes, handheld PCs, and so on. One of the benefits of streaming is that the client device(s) may render (e.g., play or display) the streaming content on devices such as stereos and video monitors situated throughout a house as the content is simultaneously received from the entertainment server, rather than waiting for all of the content or the entire “file” to be delivered.
Streamed media content can include many different types of audio and video programming with one example being television audio and video content (or simply “TV content”). TV content may “broadcast” or originate from various sources or channels, such as channels typically broadcasting over common radio frequencies (i.e., local television channels), premium channels, pay per view channels, etc. During a particular viewing session, a user may “surf” through various channels. For example, the user may start off watching a local news channel, switch to a premium channel broadcasting a sporting event, then switch to a pay per view channel broadcasting a live music concert.
TV content may be associated with a particular policy or policies. Policy includes attributes associated with the TV content and media content in general. Typical policy includes rights to copy or record the TV content, how the TV content may be rendered or displayed, and the type of equipment that may display the TV content (i.e., analog receiver or digital receiver).
Although different channels or sources may implement different policy or policies, policy associated with TV content is channel or source independent. As an example, although pay per view channels may associate read only policy (i.e., no copy) with TV content, a local broadcast channel may also associate read only policy to TV that is to be protected from copying. In certain situations, the same channel or source may broadcast different TV content having different policies. In other words, a live concert may have policy to prevent copying of the actual concert; however, commercial intermission TV content played before, during, or after the concert, may have policy that allows copying.
When a viewing session is undertaken, the user expects to have a seamless viewing experience with no glitches or interruptions as the user “surfs” or goes between channels (i.e., sources). The implementation or use of policy as to TV content (i.e., media content) interrupts the seamless viewing experience. As TV content is received along with its policy or policies, a receiver must process the policy or policies prior to processing the TV content, resulting in glitches, pauses, or noticeable interruptions seen by the user.
Therefore, there exists a need to process policies and media content without noticeable interruptions as different media content having different policy or policies is received and processed.